On November 25th we observed International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. This infographic demonstrates the connections between violence against women and homelessness. All Our Sisters is an initiative put on by the London Library in response to a lack of women's only shelters. Thus far it has formed a network that reaches out to women experiencing homelessness and aims to end homelessness for women in Canada.
Often when we think of people being homeless, we don't think of those who are affected in rural communities. This research paper seeks to provide those communities with basic information on existing support systems, factors that contribute to women's decisions to leave or stay in their communities, and needed supports for women to live in a healthy and safe environment within or outside of their communities.
Researchers at the University of Toronto are in the news with some of their findings on the relationship between health and wealth. For years we've known that poverty affects human health in a variety of ways. This latest study by Dr. Stephen Hwang finds that doctors are more likely to give first-time appointments to high income patients than low income patients. Also, a report by Dr. Richard Glazer indicates that immigrants living in low-income areas that are less geared towards physical activity are three times more likely to develop diabetes.
This new report looks at interactions between the Toronto homeless population and frontline health services in the city and finds that homeless adults disproportionately use emergency services. The actual cost of keeping our current system that turns people to ER visits far outweighs possible policy alternatives. For more information check out our Cost of Homelessness report.
Lately, poverty indicators in Canada have been rising. This recent report on Toronto indicates that 9 out of 10 families living in low-income rental buildings are at risk of homelessness. In Ottawa, researchers have found that in the past 10 years no progress has been made on ending homelessness. Our current structure leaves cities under capacity to deal with acute and systemic homelessness issues while the problems of homelessness and poverty get deeper and deeper. Leaving cities to tackle the issues has had repercussions. This is visible in the increase of child poverty in Canada, with 1 in 7 children now experiencing poverty. A recent breakdown of the federal government's Economic Action Plan signals that there needs to be a nation-wide plan for tackling homelessness head on and alleviating symptoms of poverty from our society.